Considered a key man behind the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) grand show in Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, a former Congress strongman and Tarun Gogoi-baiter, on Thursday said people of the state had voted for development and protection of their identity.
Sarma, a protege-turned-rival of the outgoing Chief Minister Gogoi, said the veteran Congressman was ruling “by default”, but people have decisively voted in favour of Narendra Modi, hoping that he would resolve the issues of their identity and usher in development in Assam.
“People of Assam are going through a crisis of identity and crisis of development. Tarun Gogoi was ruling by default. People have decisively voted in favour of Narendra Modi as he has promised to resolve their identity issue and bring in development. So all hope is on Modi and Amit Shah,” Sarma, who joined the BJP in August last year and was made the party’s convenor for assembly polls, said.
“Any party in Assam that talks about the identity of people of the state would get their support. The Congress failed to do that, but people of Assam are inspired by Modi for his politics of development and assurance that he will resolve the issue of identity,” he said.
Describing immigration from Bangladesh as a major problem, he said the BJP in its vision document has promised to stop it by sealing the borders and strengthening the National Registry of Citizenship (NRC) to ensure that they do not get voting right.
“We have promised that the Indo-Bangladesh border will be closed so that there is no more influx. According to the mandate given to the BJP, we want to detect and identify illegal immigrants,” he said.